Friday, November 2, 2012

South Dakota State Capital. Photo courtesy of Chad Coppess, SD Department of Tourism — in Pierre,

South Dakota was admitted as either the 39th or the 40th state on 2 November 1889.

President Benjamin Harrison signed the law that made North and South Dakota into states. Before he did so, he
shuffled the papers on his desk. He covered up the names on the papers. No one
knows which state he signed into law first, however, they are listed in
alphabetical order, so that North Dakota is said to be the thirty-ninth state and
South Dakota is said to be the fortieth.

After controversy over the location of a capital, the Dakota
Territory was split in two and divided into North and South in 1889.
Later that year, on November 2, North
Dakota and South
Dakota were admitted to the Union as
the 39th and 40th states. This vast territory was one of the last American
regions to be settled.

The first European explorers entered the region in
1738. At that time, at least eight Native American tribes populated the area,
including the Crow, Cheyenne,
and Dakota (Santee Sioux). The Native influence still characterizes many parts
of the states.

Other than fur trappers, explorers didn't venture much into
the Dakotas until the land came
under the possession of the United
States with the 1803 Louisiana
Purchase. The Lewis and Clark expedition spent the winter in present-day
North Dakota in
1804. With the 1832 arrival of the steamboat and the 1862 creation of the
Homestead Act, a few people migrated to the area, but tension between the
settlers and the Sioux discouraged many. It was the 1874 discovery of gold that
brought prospectors pouring into the sacred Black
Hills of the Sioux Reservation. That meant trouble.

After an armed resistance, the Sioux surrendered the Black
Hills to the U.S. in
1877. By 1881, even the powerful chief Sitting Bull had surrendered. The end of
the "Indian crisis" and the completion of the Northern Pacific
Railway brought more than 100,000 settlers between 1879 and 1886. These new
citizens became divided over the location of the capital. Northerners named Bismarck
their capital in 1883, while Southerners created their own constitution that
year, selecting Pierre as
their capital. Congress did not push the matter. Instead, Congress passed a law
that officially divided the territory before declaring both North
Dakota and South
Dakota states of the Union.